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September 15, 2005
I Do Not Like Senators
I tried watching a little of the Senate hearings of John Roberts the other day, but it reminded me why I do not like senators and why I think I would be an efficient senator if not necessarily a very popular or effective one. I gave up watching after a minute or two. First off, I would be an efficient Senator because I do not love the sound of my own voice. I do not care for public speaking, although I am not afraid of it an do not think that I am even that bad of a speaker. I am simply too introverted to want to be in front of a big group of people for that long and find the experience draining if it happens too often. For several classes and for one job I had in the past, I had to do some fairly regular public speaking and I think I always got my point across without being boring or wasting anyone's time. Thus, compared to the typical senator I would a breath of fresh air as nominees before me would get to answer lots of brief, relevant, and well phrased questions and would have plenty of time to give in depth answers. On the negative side I would be almost useless in a traditional filibuster.
I watched about a minute of the hearings this morning and Judge Roberts was answering a decent question from Senator Leahy about how many cases the Supreme Court should be hearing. According to Roberts the Supreme Court hears half as many cases as it did a few decades ago and Roberts thinks it could and should be hearing more. If only all the questions were as relevant and as ethically answerable as that one.
Speaking of senators it looks likes one of mine reads the Volokh Conspiracy. This post makes it look like the senators on the committee (including Cornyn) talked too much instead of actually interviewing Roberts.
Speaking of politicians I do not like, Tom "no fat left to cut" Delay may be joining that list as he ludicrously claims that there is no more fat to cut from the federal government. See this list from Ramesh Ponnuru of just a few places to start cutting billions from the federal budget. Republicans like Delay show what is wrong with the Republican Party and what could cause limited government voters like me to stop supporting it. What ever happened to the Republicans of 1994? The only thing holding me onto the Republican party is that the Democrats are just as bad on spending and increasing the size of the Federal government and the Democratic Party as a whole is spineless and opportunistic on issues of national defense.
Posted by Pete at September 15, 2005 09:44 PM
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